Civil Rights Icon Walter Fauntroy Arrested

In January of 2012, a warrant was issued for Fauntroy after he was charged for allegedly writing a bad check for $55,000.

On Tuesday, former congressman and civil rights legend Walter Fauntroy was expected to go before a judge.

Officers arrested Fauntroy on Mondayat Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia as he was returning to the United States after living in the Persian Gulf for approximately four years.

In January of 2012, a warrant was issued for Fauntroy after he was charged for allegedly writing a bad check for $55,000. The check was supposed to help pay for President Barack Obama‘s first inauguration ball in 2009. Fauntroy, now 83, claims the bad check issue had been previously resolved.

According to The Washington Post, Fauntroy returned to the United States “because he missed his family and he had finally obtained financing for his ­green-energy humanitarian projects around the world.”

During Tuesday’s edition of NewsOne Now, Roland Martin and his panel of guests discussed the fall from grace experienced by Fauntroy, who was once a congressional delegate.

Martin called Fauntroy’s downfall “sad.” The host of NewsOne Now said he spoke to individuals who said the person Fauntroy is now isn’t the person they used to know.

Citing outlandish claims Fauntroy previously made about the media in the United States, Martin made mention of multiple instances where staffers at NewsOne Now invited him to appear on the show. He added it was as if the former congressman “had completely dropped off of the grid.”

A. Scott Bolden, a partner at Reed Smith LLP, believes Fauntroy returned to the U.S. to face the charges levied against him.

“If anything, the community has rallied around he and his wife and their family,” Bolden said. He added that hopefully the civil rights activist will get help.

NewsOne Now panelist Amber J. Phillips addressed the toll fighting for civil rights and social justice may have had on Fauntroy and other activists, and said we need to have conversations about how our community should “protect these legends, these activists, from circumstances of their lives.”

Watch Roland Martin and the NewsOne Now panel discuss the case of Walter Fauntroy in the video clip above.